Secret Formula for Coke: Read All About It Here

What’s the secret formula for Coke? That’s the question that’s been on everybody’s mind for over a century.

But NPR’s “This American Life” (produced by Chicago Public Radio) thinks they may have the answer. Apparently John Pemberton, the pharmacist who created the soft drink in 1886, developed something called Merchandise 7X (a.k.a. the secret formula) and left it in a leather-bound notebook.

Coke’s recipe for their soft drink is one of the most closely-guarded secrets in business. After Asa Candler bought out Pemberton in 1887 for $2,300, the exact recipe for Merchandise 7X was placed in a vault in an Atlanta bank.

According to published reports, only two company employees know the secret ingredients and how they’re mixed at any given time. The secret is so closely held that those two employees aren’t allowed to travel together out of fear that an accident might take both of their lives.

Company historian Mark Pendergrast was quoted in Yahoo News as saying, “I think that it (the alleged secret formula) certainly is a version of the formula. It’s very similar to a formula that I found” in one of John Pemberton’s notebooks when he was doing research for his book.

So what’s the secret recipe that was revealed on “This American Life”? The ingredients are provided below, but if you want to know the real secret formula for Coke, keep scrolling past the recipe and read on.

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